Considering how bad the replay looked and how much pain he was in on the ice, Thursday morning’s news that Radim Simek tore his right ACL and MCL ligaments in a game in Winnipeg on Tuesday was unsurprising. The rookie defenseman, who provided a steady presence on the left side of Brent Burns for more than three months, has a long road of rehabilitation ahead of him and is almost certainly done for the regular season and playoffs.

Let’s break down what it means, Q&A style.

What are the Sharks losing in Simek?

It’s worth pointing out that the game in which the Sharks started to turn around their season, Dec. 2 in Montreal, was also Simek’s NHL debut after he was a healthy scratch for the first 27 games. While his insertion into the lineup wasn’t the sole reason the team began winning, of course, Simek made an instant fan out of coach Pete DeBoer. He played in every game after that, other than when a concussion kept him out for two games in early...